ANZ may be getting its costs, and thus its profits, in order, with the bank reporting earnings for the December 2016 quarter that were around double that of the corresponding quarter in 2015.But business lending in general is in decline at ANZ, maybe by design.The bank, in a trading update on Friday, put its first quarter statutory net profit at A$1.6 billion. This compares with a quarterly average over its 2016 financial year of $1.43 billion.ANZ said its cash profit was $2.0 billion, around one third more than the quarterly average for the bank over 2016.Its profit before provisions increased 17 per cent, with the lift attributed to "a good performance in Australia and New Zealand retail, and in Institutional, along with a lower provision charge and the sale of 100 Queen Street."Expenses fell four per cent at ANZ over the first quarter, a contrast with elevated cost growth at NAB over the same period.Lending volumes in commercial "were more subdued," the bank said, while there was also $3 billion decrease in institutional lending products, on a risk weighted basis. The latter continues a prominent theme in the bank's full year results.ANZ stuck to its rhetoric on digital wallets, saying "Apple Pay and Android Pay are driving ongoing net customer acquisition."Shayne Elliott, ANZ's managing director, in an interview with the bank's BlueNotes portal, said "I think we delivered a great cost outcome last year where we kept costs pretty flat. This year, well in this quarter anyway, we actually got costs down, and that's a pretty big step for large organisations like this and there clearly has to be more to come."